Iran launches cross-border missile, drone strikes on Kurdish groups in Iraq

ARBIL, Iraq: Iran launched new cross-border missile and drone strikes Monday against Iraqbased Kurdish opposition groups it accuses of stoking unrest at home, killing at least one person according to local authorities.

Iran has been rocked by almost two months of protests sparked by the death of Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, 22, after she was arrested by the feared morality police for allegedly breaching the strict dress code for women.

Tehran, accusing KurdishIranian opposition groups based in northern Iraq of stoking the “riots”, previously launched attacks in late September that killed more than a dozen people in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.

In Monday’s barrage, “five Iranian missiles targeted a building used by the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran”, the mayor of Koysanjaq in Iraqi Kurdistan, Tariq al-Haidari, told AFP.

The region’s health ministry said “one person is dead and eight were wounded”.

Plumes of black smoke could be seen billowing into the sky after the strikes, in videos shared on social media, as more missiles rained down on targets elsewhere in the mountainous Kurdistan region.

In Iran, a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, General Osanlou, confirmed that “we struck targets located along the border and 80 kilometres from the border” with missiles and drones.

He charged that those targeted “were terrorists that have been active in the riots these last few months”, speaking on state television about the nationwide protests.